Jay Leno's Streak of NBC Jokes Is Over

Is there a late-night truce in the works? After taking aim at his parent network during every Tonight Show monologue last week, Leno seems to have taken a break from mocking the NBC executives who are already planning for a future without him.

Is there a late-night truce in the works? After taking aim at his parent network during every Tonight Show monologue last week — Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, with a Jimmy-Fallon-is-coming report in between — Jay Leno seems to have taken a break from mocking the NBC captors in the boardroom who are already planning for a future without him. His opening routine Monday night, in which he lamented the "tough crowd," made fun of the acronym for Florida Gulf Coast University, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, Obama in Israel, and a woman who has an "allergic reaction" to exercise.

Of course, there was one bit about a rattlesnake handler. Deadline sort of surmised that the quip could perhaps that was a callback to last Monday night's monologue, when he followed up a report that his jokes about NBC's ratings were upsetting his boss Robert Greenblatt by calling executives "snakes." But that seems a little subtle for Leno. He also did make a joke this Monday about NBC's The Apprentice and Donald Trump's hair, but that's not a direct hit—everybody at NBC makes fun of Trump.

Meanwhile, Leno has recently gotten some support from an unlikely place: Jimmy Kimmel—who has been in the past vocally critical of Leno—told Broadcasting & Cable that he's "firmly on Jay’s side" on the subject of the "exchange of pointed e-mails" Leno and Greenblatt sent over thsoe ratings jokes. Kimmel continued: "Talk shows have been making fun of their network and network executives for about 40 years now. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone."